Mr. Robot | Season 2 Episode 11 Recap

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Hello, friend! Welcome to the Mr. Robot podcast on Post Show Recaps. Every week, Josh Wigler (@roundhoward) and Antonio Mazzaro (@acmazzaro) discuss the latest episode of Mr. Robot, covering each and every hour of the USA Network drama’s second season.

This week Josh and Antonio settle in for a quick game of Land of Ecodelia. And by quick game, we mean another 2.5 hour podcast, this time delving into the season’s penultimate installment… which is technically the first hour of the two-part season finale. Josh and Antonio discuss the latest developments with Angela Moss and her sudden turn down the Lost rabbit hole, Elliot’s massive meet-up at the end of the episode, Dominic DiPierro’s conversation with Alexa and her potentially hidden past, Darlene and Cisco’s still unknown condition, and more.

Josh’s THR Interviews for Episode 211:

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Josh Wigler is an entertainment journalist who covers Survivor, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and other popular TV shows for The Hollywood Reporter. He's the co-author of The Evolution of Strategy, creator of First One Out, host of Post Show Recaps and The Wiggle Room, and occasional Wanda Shirk impersonator.
He once interviewed Kermit the Frog about The Avengers and The Hunger Games, and hung out with Daryl Dixon and Ted the teddy bear during New Year's... so, you know, he's kind of a big deal. Follow Josh on Twitter @roundhoward.

Antonio Mazzaro is a Kentuckian, Lawyer, and Radio/TV/Film graduate of Northern Kentucky University--but he would love it if you didn't hold any of those things against him. Antonio's covered shows including Breaking Bad for Post Show Recaps, and Jack Benny, My Morning Jacket, and the Cincinnati Bearcats are a few of his favorite things. The TV character he would most like to emulate is his hero, Mr. Rogers. Follow Antonio on Twitter: @acmazzaro.

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I was so happy when I saw this was posted. I opted to stay 2 1/2 hrs. longer at work to listen to this uninterrupted rather than go hm and have to start dinner, etc. Awesome review.

Trixie02

Josh and Antonio, I love your recaps because you explore many possibilities and make links most overlook like DDDP. All the while, you stay grounded while exploring the more far out theories.

CRAZY THEORY ALERT based off of multiple Reddit discussions, but I’d love to hear others’ thoughts:

I really don’t see the BTTF/time travel being anything more than a metaphor.Elliot and Angela seem stuck in the past which revolves around their parents. To “rewrite” the things that happened to them in their sleep might enable them to cope in the present, so they “time travel” in their sleep. By doing so, Elliot might remember those three days or Angela might uncover something since we know less about her.

The questions to Angela posed by the little girl who looks like her (and could be her if she is dreaming) might signify a repressed memory of abuse: Have you cried during sex? Have you ever wanted to kill your father? Where is the key? Angela’s answer is a quote (I googled it) from “Lolita” that the key is in her fist which was in her pocket. That is what the man who preys on Lolita says, so is Angela taking control of her past? Next to the “door” at the lawyer’s home are two signs that say: “What happens at Grandma’s stays at Grandma’s.” It sounds like Darlene’s creepy story.

The fish dies and in S01E04, Angela eats a huge version of Qwerty while Elliot is sad about that. Elliot holds up a key and Angela says “I do” and later tells Elliot the key didn’t fit and he won’t change the future. Are they trying to change the future through dreaming? What is the key? Does it link to the door analogy WR spoke of? During his exorcism from his daemon, Elliot was handed the key and a mask from Mr. Robot. Later, Darlene told him he lost his key and asked if he knew his monster, Tyrell next had the key while Elliot spoke to Qwerty and then Angela said it does not fit. Both Angela and Elliot had dreams with a fish and a key. Is it a keyboard reference (QWERTY) to a specific key? We often dream about what we do and a symbolic key for Elliot might be a keyboard key. There was an Easter egg that led to Lovecraft’s opening text to “The Book”. The book leads to a key that was to gateways. A scene from the previous episode focused on a picture of Bill Gates with NO under his photo and a Dell laptop box…Gateway? I’m not sure if Elliot bought it.

Dreams have been a motif this season starting with “Daydream”, Fidelio reference to to “Eyes Wide Shut”, based on a novel called “Dream Story”. It is as if the characters want to imagine their lives in other ways (sitcom episode) rather than deal with the actual outcomes of past events. Maybe through dreaming they can literally change the outcome of the present by unlocking blocked memories, gateways to controlling one’s destiny.

Sorry for the long comment.

TrentC

I can’t speak to the time travel theories but certainly buy into the dream connections with the keys and fish. They’re threads in Angela and Elliot’s lives for sure.

I caught the phrase from Lolita and the father question and am certain they point toward child abuse. Mini-Angela, the Commodore 64, the old poster on the wall, the taped over faces in the family pictures, knowing that Angela had read Lolita, all point towards her childhood and something negative that had occurred.

The beatific smile Angela had at the end of the episode indicated to me that Whiterose had helped Angela exorcise her demons. The fact that Whiterose knew intimate details about Angela’s past and could recreate specific details of her life is both fascinating and scary. Maybe there were some drugs involved as the scene had such a dreamlike and Lynch-ian (Antonio’s great term) feel to it.

Some excellent thoughts and theories there, thanks Trixie.

Trixie02

Thanks, Trent! I love to read all of the theories! WR is becoming scary. If it was a dream sequence Angela was in then the blocked out faces are significant. I forgot about the ice cream truck music and the contrast in the rooms.

Do you think ecodelia could be recreating an environment in a way like psychedelic drugs create states? It seemed as if they recreated part of her childhood bedroom,

TrentC

Do you mean the Ecodelia text based adventure program is creating the weird environment? That would be a surreal by-product and yes, I’ll be getting that game tomorrow!

In the scene she looks to be at first supremely puzzled, then on the verge of tears almost until the end. Her expressions go in stages… foremost part of her brain is initially scared because of the abduction, then the room along with the question and answer experience with the girl make her curious, and finally it seems part of her wants to know the answers and delve into her own psyche no matter the cost. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out her Dad had that old poster in the house and there was a fish tank.

Kind of fascinating to find out that Elliot, Darlene and Angela all have some form of abuse in their background and that Whiterose may be aware of it. I guess knowledge is power and he/she could have gotten their childhood records…but man oh man, talk about digging deep into someone’s life and possibly (?) offering a solution to help.

I’m assuming much not knowing anything about Angela’s past but hey, it’s not time travel 🙂

Trixie02

I guess I meant that perhaps WR is recreating environments to trigger memories or alter them by letting the “subject” choose to change the outcomes. Dom freaked out about the clock, so it triggered something. If the room adjusts according to the answers then I’ll choose seagull.

TrentC

Ahh yes, subtle forms of mind control that induce certain ‘agreeable’ and open states.

If that room adjusted one iota… I’d be doing the Hey Kool-Aid thing and bashing through a wall.

I was already a little freaked out by Whiterose and now I’m scared. Thanks.

Pop Quiz – Right now if you had to give a 100% answer either way, is Whiterose a positive or negative force in this show?

Trixie02

Negative. She urinated on a grave!

TrentC

Stop making me laugh in the serious thread.Think she allotted a certain amount of time for that?

I know there’s all sorts of gray areas in this show. I’d still like to think that Whiterose (and by association Elliot) represent good and people like Price represent evil.

Completely unrelated – I really need to hear what Darlene whispered to Elliot when he got out of prison. That’s three people doing the close quarters whisper thing this season…

Trixie02

I don’t think any one character falls into blanket categories. Price has redeeming qualities as well–he seemingly saved Angela’s life. It’s kind of like an Escher’s depictions of chessboards…it depends on how you view the piece or character.

Trixie02

Regarding what Darlene said, there is a lot of speculation, but my favorite comment from Reddit was: “Coulda sworn she said ‘We’re gonna build a wall and Mexico is gonna pay for it'”.

TrentC

That trumps..what I was thinking of……

Sunny Mc

Great pod guys! So excited about the finale next week.
I just wanted to make a couple of comments about Angela.
I don’t think she wrote off her dad. I think she got everyone from the plant to settle with e-corp to get cash while they stil can. She was very concerned about her dad’s debt. The conversation she had with her dad, I actually thought she was really hurt when he dismisses her when she says she wants to get e-corp from working on the inside.
You didn’t touch on Angela’s behavior when she went to her lawyer’s house. It was strange, and Joanna-esque. The SUV looked like Joanna’s. The whole thing was strange. Did you notice the brown out happened the TV newscast went back around 30 seconds. Watch herehttps://youtu.be/_MGRUfQpYQY

TrentC

Oh, one more minor tidbit. I noticed that Angela’s whisper in the lawyer’s ear was almost exactly the same as Joanna’s whisper into Elliot’s ear. Intimate and somewhat ear-rotic… Perhaps no connection, but the scenes are pretty much a mirror image of each other.